Doyle/Democrat photo
Dover’s Jessie Mau, right, slides home while North catcher Hailey Reed gets ready to apply the tag during Division I action Friday at Dunaway Field. Mau was out on the play but Dover won 3-1.

DOVER —The runs didn’t come as easily for the Dover High School softball team on Friday as they did during its previous game, but the Green Wave got them when they needed them.

Emily Schlapak and Mikaela Leighton each hit RBI singles in the bottom of the fourth inning to break a scoreless tie, and Dover earned a 3-1 win over Nashua North in Division I action Friday at Dunaway Field.

“We had to pick ourselves up more in this game,” Schlapak said. “We still had to fight.”

The Green Wave improved to 4-0, and were coming off an 8-2 win over Merrimack on Wednesday during which they scored six unearned runs in the first two innings.

“It was kind of an ugly win, but we’ll take it,” Dover coach Tim Dudley said. “We got what we needed.”

Schlapak and Jessie Mau led Dover with two hits apiece. Starting pitcher Brittney Cirinna earned the win, facing the minimum number of batters in the first inning and retiring the side in order in the fourth.Cirinna struck out four before getting into trouble in the sixth inning, as North loaded the bases with no outs and scored a run. Kylie McFadden came in to get the third out, then pitched a 1-2-3 seventh to preserve the win.

Dover left a pair of runners on base over the first three innings, but finally got on the board in the fourth. Ashley Deyo reached on an error, then moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Kristin Boduch. Schlapak and Leighton hit back-to-back two-out singles to give Dover a 2-0 lead.

“The umpire had a very wide strike zone,” Leighton said. “So we really had to protect. My pitch was a little outside but I pulled it to center.”The Green Wave got an insurance run in the fifth inning. Mau and Caroline Schoenbucher hit back-to-back singles, then Molly St. Germaine hit an infield single that took an fortunate carom off the third-base bag. Mau was out on a play at the plate, but Schoenbucher eventually scored on an error to make it 3-0. In the top of the sixth, Nashua’s Hannah Neverett led off with a single, followed by a towering double to the fence in left-center field by Cassie Page. A single by Grace Countie scored Neverett, and North cut the lead to 3-1.“We had our opportunities,” Nashua coach Wake Stillman said. “We had the same number of hits. It wasn’t that we couldn’t put the ball in play, we just didn’t capitalize on our opportunities.”

Cirinna got the next player to ground into a fielder’s choice, as Dover third baseman St. Germaine connected with catcher Ashley Deyo to tag Page at the plate. Cirinna got the next batter to ground out to second base, but a walk loaded the bases. McFadden then came in to end the threat with a strikeout.

Dover hits the road for the first time this season on Monday when they visit Manchester Memorial. North fell to 1-3.